South Africa on Thursday logged 9 149 new COVID-19 cases, which represents a 15.7% positivity testing rate.

According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), figures from the past seven days show that South Africa is now experiencing the third wave.

“South Africa technically entered the third wave today as the national seven-day moving average incidence of 5 959 cases, which now exceeds the new wave threshold, as defined by the Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC),” the NICD said on Thursday.

The MAC, which provides recommendations on managing the COVID-19 pandemic, defines the new wave seven-day moving average threshold as 30% of the peak incidence of the previous wave.

The majority of the new infections are from Gauteng, with 5 597 cases (61%), followed by the Western Cape with 932 (10%).

This brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 1 722 086 since the outbreak.

The NICD also observed an increase of 844 admissions, pushing the total to 7 300 patients in health institutions across the country.

An additional 127 in-hospital deaths were reported in the past 24 hours.

The data is based on the 12 044 072 tests conducted, 58 322 of which were done since the last reporting cycle.

To date, 1 619 011 people have been vaccinated in South Africa.

According to the World Health Organisation, as of 10 June 2021, there have been 174 061 995 confirmed global cases, 3 758 560 deaths and 2 156 384 616 administered vaccine doses.

Source: South African Government News Agency